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  “I believe this so-called ‘junk’ we’re staking our lives on, comes with a pair of standard civilian-made guns.”

  Brale had to smile at Dyos’s curse behind him. Seconds later, the guns emerged from the front of the craft. The Hadarian crew began running for cover as Dyos open fired on them. When the coast was clear, Dyos directed the firepower to the cargo ship’s airlock, destroying the temporary tunnel connecting it to the Hadarian battle cruiser.

  Brale glanced at the red warning flickering madly on his controls. The little craft had held its own against the beating the Hadarians dished out with their laser guns, but it wouldn’t hold out long. He shoved the panic rising inside him. Think, Brale. Spotting Farr’s sleek Hadarian cruiser right in front of him, he grinned.

  He craned his neck backwards to look at his mate. “This hovercraft would not last an hour in deep space. I believe we need a new ship, and Lady Luck seems to favor us, because I can see one unattended ship in front of us.”

  “You’re proposing we steal a Hadarian battle cruiser?” Dyos asked incredulously.

  Then he looked thoughtful. A devious expression finally appeared on his handsome face. His Hadarian mate had come a long way from his stiff Hadarian roots, Brale mused with pride.

  “You sly bastard. There are probably just one or two warriors left there.”

  “Absolutely nothing we tough and scarred bounty hunters can’t handle.”

  “Farr’s probably going to have our heads though. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s placed a bounty all across the galaxy for our heads”

  Brale grinned. “We’ve been in worse places before, and besides he doesn’t have our names or details.”

  “Then by all means, let’s go steal a Hadarian battle cruiser.”

  ****

  “Dyos, let us switch places,” Brale yelled loud enough that Dyos could hear him shouting from the ship’s bridge all the way to its storage hold. A few lucky shots from a heavy assault plasma rifle bounced off the ship’s hull, making it wobble slightly.

  “Why? The platinum seals on the merchandise are beyond damaged by those laser shots. Do you think the client will still accept this? We’ll be lucky if he pays us half.”

  “Dyos, your damn Hadarian controls are beyond my comprehension. Get over here,” Brale hollered back.

  More damaging shots hammered into the cruiser’s side. One of the lights on the console began to blink in warning. Brale began to seriously worry when two of Farr’s men began to push something, a portable and armed plasma warhead, at their direction. He knew from experience one hit from the missile could wipe out them and their stolen ship.

  “Fuck, Dyos. They’re planning on blowing us up.”

  “Just get us the hell out of here, Brale,” snapped Dyos from the other end.

  Brale glanced at the console in front of him again with mounting frustration. Didn’t Dyos know by now he didn’t work well under stress?

  Illegible Hadarian runes stared back at him the touch screen. He dispensed with trying to wrack his brains with the Hadarian alphabet and began banging randomly at the screen. For a few seconds nothing happened. From his vid screen, Brale spied Farr shouting commands at the two men positioning the weapon.

  “Gods of Cobrini, we are really going to die this time.”

  After all the outrageous and tale-worthy scrapes he and Dyos had managed to escape from, was this how they were going to meet their end, exploded to tiny bits in the middle of a heist?

  Fuck this. Brale furiously slammed at the screen again. It made wailing noises as the ship wobbled from the onslaughts of hits. Then the console’s screen blacked out. Brale swallowed. Dyos was going to kill him.

  He heard Dyos cursing and fumbling his way to the bridge as the cruiser rocked and shifted. Brale felt like he was a character in one of those sappy Terran romantic movies he’d never admit to liking so much.

  Time slowed. Dyos jogged up to him, muscles bunching under his sexy flight suit. Dyos’s golden skin looked good under the ship’s red blinking lights. Emotion caught itself in Brale’s throat as their eyes met. “We had good times, Dyos.”

  He closed his eyes and spread his arms wide, readying himself for the moment Dyos would fall into them. They’d then speak in soft and reverent tones, as they recalled fond memories while time ran out.

  They’d talk about the hundred of runs they did all across the galaxy. The hiccups and the unexpected surprises like the time they’d found a charming crystal lake on a dying planet, or the time they unearthed an antique collection of Terran porn and sold it for thousands of space credits.

  Brale could even recall the moment they first met. On a blood-soaked Hadarian battlefield where Dyos had put a blade to his throat and threatened to end his life. Brale could still remember how Dyos’s entire body had frozen when he reached out to claim his lips instead. Then Brale went on to eventually claim Dyos’s entire body, heart and soul until they were mated in every sense of the word.

  Good times.

  What did the Terran hunk in those movies say? “Dyos, before death claims us, I have something important to say to you. I love—”

  Brale became stunned when the ship suddenly hummed back to life. The overhead lights in the cabin stopped blinking. The engines whirred, and the ship launched itself into deep hyperspace.

  Brale crashed into his mate with a grunt. They both collapsed on the hard metal floor of the bridge. On the screen, the transport ship was reduced to a mere speck of dust.

  “Get the hell off me, you big oaf,” Dyos muttered.

  Brale mutely did, still unable to believe how lucky they were both to still be alive. He collapsed beside Dyos, shaking. “I thought we were really done for back then.”

  “You nearly killed both of us, idiot.” Dyos managed to stand and seat himself on the primary pilot’s seat.

  “You knew I couldn’t read Hadarian,” Brale said shortly, standing by Dyos’s side. “I also have no idea why your people bothered writing the entire operating system in your own language. Has your race never heard of the international space standard?”

  Dyos ignored him and continued inputting commands on the console. Brale crossed his thick arms and waited for Dyos to finish. When he was done, Dyos finally looked at him. The annoyance there disappeared when Brale put his hands to good use. He worked out the knots across Dyos’s broad shoulders until the Hadarian let out a sigh.

  “Next time, you check the merchandise and I pilot the stolen ship.”

  “I wholeheartedly agree.” Brale leaned down and took Dyos’s lips.

  He nibbled and sucked on Dyos’s bottom lip as Dyos tugged him down the seat. There was a creaking sound, but they chose to ignore it. Brale pushed his tongue between Dyos’s lips and began to tongue-fuck his mate. The chair may be built sturdily for one large Hadarian warrior, but it didn’t factor for a second and no-less large Cobrini male. For the second time that day, Brale and Dyos hit the floor.

  “Let us continue this in the bedroom,” Brale suggested, rubbing at the bump on his head.

  “There are no bedrooms in a Hadarian cruiser, just communal sleeping pods,” Dyos said unhelpfully.

  Brale made a disgusted sound in his throat. “I can vividly recall the first time we went to one of the pleasure houses in the Hillion Galaxy. You practically pounced on the feather bed, proclaiming it was all yours and I had to sleep on the coach.”

  “I do not pounce,” Dyos said tightly. “Besides, I need your expert opinion on the merchandise first.”

  “Oh fine, but after that, we find a place to fuck. I’m sure there’s one place on this ship that isn’t uncomfortable or rigid.”

  “Is fucking all you think about? Wait, why do I bother asking?” Dyos didn’t complain though when Brale kissed him playfully on the cheek.

  Chapter Two

  Using a pair of primitive but handy Hadarian implements, Dyos delicately cracked opened the dented iron box. Underneath the cheap metal casing was an expensive platinum cylinder equipped
with life-sustaining facilities.

  Inside the grade-A dome covering the pod’s top, was a naked and sleeping Terran female floating inside a jelly-like solution. Tubes were connected to various parts of her body, no doubt to help her breathe and provide nutrients.

  Dyos cursed under his breath. “Did you know we were being paid to transport a live specimen, Brale?”

  Dyos and Brale lived by no particular code. They had to be ruthless to survive in the galaxy’s underworld of bounty hunters, pirates, and general scum. They did however, have their own set of rules they abided by, and transporting live cargo hadn’t been one of them.

  The slave trade might be one of the galaxy’s profitable businesses, especially with the sudden influx of Terran women available from the dying Earth, but Dyos wanted no slice of that particular pie. Slavery was always bound to get messy in his experience. It was much safer and easier to transfer illegal goods.

  “No. The client didn’t go into any particular details.”

  Dyos punched Brale’s shoulder hard, making Brale hiss at him. “I thought it prudent not to ask, given the numbers the client waved at me were mind-numbing for an easy transport mission.”

  “You didn’t bother going through the contract? I thought you said you handled negotiations smoothly.” Dyos placed an emphasis on “smoothly”. Gods of the Galaxy, he was fond of his mate, even occasionally loved him, but sometimes Brale got on his nerves.

  “Nothing in the contract said anything about a Hadarian cruiser ship. Farr and his men were definitely suspicious toting such modern weaponry around. Do you think they were after this—her?” Brale corrected himself, gesturing to the pod.

  Dyos ran his fingers across the plaque on the pod, frowning at the embedded numbers there and the little logo. “These numbers look familiar. We’ve seen this thirteen digit combination before and this corporate logo.”

  Brale neared him and examined the plate, his brows furrowed. “It’s a Terran logo. Genesis Incorporated.”

  “The breeding lab? We’re doomed.” Dyos felt like he’d taken a punch in the gut.

  If the woman in the pod was simply an exotic whore or plaything, it would’ve been fine, but the woman in the pod was a Breeder. Genetically-created Breeders were rare in a galaxy full of races having problems with fertility, and only the truly wealthy and connected could afford them. They were considered rare gifts, even to influential dignitaries, princes, and emperors.

  “We’re as good as dead. They’re going to smell our blood in the water and zone in on us like sharks.”

  “I see you’re using sea metaphors now, Dyos. Obviously, our recent sea-faring adventures in the ocean world of Meindos have left quite an impression on you.”

  Dyos was tempted to hit Brale again, but Brale sobered at his expression. “I understand how serious this. We’ve already set the coordinates to the client’s ship. We’ll drop the merchandise off, get what we’re owed, and be free of this business.”

  Dyos snorted. “You think it’s going to be that easy? I’m not even sure ripping out that Hadarian transmitter is enough to keep us off anyone’s radar. Let’s check the pod for any tracking devices just in case.”

  Dyos wasn’t exactly sure what he should be looking for. When his fingers brushed against the plate again, he paused. “Brale, hand me some tools.”

  Using a screwdriver, he unscrewed the nails on the plate, unearthing a panel. It just had one button. “Okay. Let’s rationally figure out—”

  Brale slammed his fist into the button, and the pod began hissing with smoke.

  “Fuck, Brale. Why do you always have to press any shiny buttons you come across?”

  “Because a little recklessness is what makes life interesting?”

  Dyos pulled himself and his partner back in case the gas was poisonous. After making sure it wasn’t dangerous, they neared the pod again. Dyos paled. The liquid goo covering the woman vanished, sucked by a vacuum underneath. Then the glass cover slid open.

  Brale and Dyos could do nothing but stare for the first seconds as tubes detached themselves, disappearing underneath the box. They jumped back when the woman woke. Her limbs twitched at first, and then she let out one gasp before jolting upwards.

  When she was lying still in the pod, Dyos could still imagine she was a corpse, an object they didn’t know what to do about. Now she was awake and moving, he could no longer think of her an object. He’d never been interested in the females on the whole, but the more he stared at her, the more his cock grew heavy in his flight suit.

  Devoid of the amber fluid, her skin was a rich and light honey color, and her hair was wet, dark and long, falling down her waist. Dyos also found that there was something exotic and alluring about her face.

  Her cheekbones were sharp, slightly dotted with color, and her eyes were wide and vivid green. Although she wasn’t tall, her limbs were slender and well formed, her breasts neither too small nor too big.

  When she lifted her gaze at them, Dyos spotted the shiny metal collar on her neck. It bore the same numbers on the pod.

  “Are you two my new masters?” she asked in husky voice, as if unused to speaking.

  “Yes. We certainly are,” was the first thing Brale said. It seemed Brale had conveniently forgotten his earlier oath they’d set a course for the client and drop off the merchandise.

  The woman seemed to take his words as truth, because she climbed out of the pod. Dyos was about to pull Brale to a corner and have some serious words with him, but he stopped cold. There was an odd grace to each of her movements, even when she knelt in front of them.

  She kept her eyes lowered as she spoke. “What do my new masters desire of me?”

  “I have always wanted to have one of these in my possession,” Brale told Dyos, who only mutely punched him in the shoulder. He was quite certain Brale didn’t know what exactly she was, and he wasn’t too sure either.

  “Please excuse us for a moment,” Dyos told the woman. He quickly steered Brale out of the cargo hold and back to the corridor leading to the ship’s residential quarters.

  “Why do you utter the first words that come out of your mouth without bothering to check with your thick head?” Dyos demanded, crossing his arms.

  “As I recall, you like my mouth just fine, Dyos,” Brale said lazily. “Besides, have we not been having recent discussions in adding a third bondmate to the mix to spice things up? I know you desire this female as much as I.”

  The marked change in his speech and body language began to make Dyos wary. He’d been with Brale long enough to recognize when the darker aspect of his Cobrini nature began to peek out. Gone was the mate who always made jokes and never seemed to take anything seriously.

  While it was true they were considering taking a third after this job, Dyos didn’t think taking a Breeder as a third was the wisest thing in the galaxy.

  Brale’s slitted black eyes sat dark and heavy with desire in their sockets. Dyos let out a breath when Brale’s hand wandered possessively down the zipper of his flight suit and paused on over the visible bulge on his jeans.

  “It has been a while since I’ve tasted you.”

  Dyos attempted to bat his hand away, but Brale’s grip was inhumanly strong. He swallowed. Dyos’s eyes followed the line of corded muscles bunching under the sleeve of Brale’s skin-tight flight suit. Under normal circumstances, he’d let Brale do what he wanted.

  Gods of the Galaxy, he could feel the heat kindling inside him. Seeing Brale’s dominant side coming out, his balls were beginning to draw tightly against him

  “We have to deal with the unexpected merchandise.” Dyos knew he’d said the wrong words, because Brale’s eyes glittered, his pupils dilating with pleasure until they nearly swallowed all of his irises.

  “Our female will please us, Dyos. In turn, we shall reciprocate and bring her to pleasure again and again.” Brale’s tone was clearly a command, not a suggestion. It was useless trying to convince Brale otherwise, Dyos knew, when his Cobrini self t
ook control.

  The image of the female between them rose unbidden in Dyos’s head. Dyos imagined her administering little feline-like licks across his shaft while Brale magnificently pounded her from behind.

  “A Breeder is trained to serve, Brale. We will never know for certain if she will be a willing participant in our mating, or she is simply following her function.”

  A seductive deep laugh boomed out of Brale. Brale leaned in close, until their faces were touching. Dyos let out a sound when Brale lifted his wrist and ran his tongue across his pulse. The simple gesture was enough to unhinge and set him off.

  “You wanted to fight me at first, too, Dyos, but you willingly yielded without a second thought.”

  Dyos bit his lip, groaning when Brale’s firm hands wandered back up his chest. “Our first mating was different.”

  “How was it different? It is simple, Dyos. We make this female ours by showing her we are worthy companions in bed,” Brale said, sounding unconcerned.

  Ours? This conversation wasn’t going well. Both of their races were possessive in nature, and if Brale began to see the woman as theirs, he was not easily going to let her go. Dyos could hardly think when he felt the edge of Brale’s slightly sharpened incisors tracing the edge of his neck. Just remembering what Brale could do with his mouth, teeth, and tongue wasn’t helping him remember reason.

  Don’t get distracted. Get your point across.

  “She doesn’t belong to us, Brale. She belongs to our client. The client who is going to make sure we no longer have to kill ourselves trying to make a living. Besides with Farr on our trail, the wisest decision to make is get rid of her.”

  “Forgot everything that I’ve said before. I don’t see why we still have to fulfill our obligations to a client, a scum, who failed to inform us about the Hadarian squadron. Can you really stomach surrendering such a pure and sweet creature to a man like that?”

  The Gods of the Galaxy be damned. Dyos knew it was mistake opening the pod, and he knew his words no longer had any effect on his mate. Perhaps after Brale had sated his lust, things would go back to normal. Dyos was counting on the fact that apart from their mates, the Cobrini usually saw other lovers as nothing better than a quick dalliance or a quick means to an end.